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Twenty-nine people died on Friday in two separate traffic accidents in Iran.

Twenty-six lost their lives when a bus and a truck collided in southern Iran, said reports.

Earlier reports said the accident’s death toll was 30. Scores of other passengers were also injured when the two vehicles crashed.

The accident occurred Friday on the Sirjan-Bardsir road in Kerman province. Passengers on the bus were mostly young Basiji people returning home to Shiraz, farther south, after attending meetings of volunteer militiamen in Kerman, the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, said.

Police have blamed the truck driver for the accident, saying he suddenly "swerved to the left," IRNA said, cited by AFP.

Meanwhile, three people were killed and two others injured Friday in the eastern province of Khorassan following a head-on collision between a van and a car.

According to IRNA, police blamed the accident on the van driver for his "inopportune overtaking."

Iran has one of the highest road accident rates in the world, with more than 200,000 accidents reported each year, according to ie.online news service.

More than 17,000 people died in road accidents in the country last year, it said.

The Iranian agency said around 15,000 people were killed in accidents every year and 87,000 injured.

Citing official statistics, AFP said that Iranian road accidents caused one death every 40 minutes and an injury every seven minutes – Albawaba.com